Let's get to know each other.

I'll go first.

Note: What follows is a personal biography. If you'd like the professional accolades, awards, interviews and press coverage and all the reasons why you should hire me, that's here.

Photo credits: MamaPop + Pacing the Panic Room - this is BlogHer 2009

Like you, probably, I blog. I started my first blog on LiveJournal in 2003 before I flew to Japan to start teaching English. I started it to stay in touch with friends and family while I was abroad (note: I'd link to it but you wouldn't want to read the things I wrote back then.) Teaching English in Japan led to opening a yoga studio. It's four now.

Growing up in a military family, I caught the travel bug young. 

While I was in Japan I got lonely. So I began seriously social networking and working for a site that was called Zaadz at the time (Zaadz was acquired by Gaiam in 2007.) And I decided to fly back to the States to meet some of my digital friends in person. I went on a multi-month tour of the States and Mexico.

Photo credit: Vincent Horn

After seeing Boulder, Colorado, I knew I had found the perfect place where East meets West. I decided to stick around. This community is entrepreneurial, tech-oriented, and focused on helping you live a healthy life. Rumor has it that when Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who founded Naropa University, saw the Boulder foothills he said it reminded him of Tibet. It's here that I helped found Buddhist Geeks and shortly thereafter (back in Japan for a while) Zen is Stupid. 

A few months after moving to Boulder and throwing quite the cop-alerting housewarming party, we had a fire that burned it down. (Perhaps that housewarming was a bit...too warm?) I became an overnight supporter of and evangelist for The American Red Cross. (Which takes second place in my charitable organizations only toThe American Cancer Society. I support them because they support birthdays. My mom only got thirty.)

I hit the road again. And circled back to Boulder eventually. To work for TechStars doing outreach to get more women, specifically, interested in joining the startup world.

Photo credits: Emily Lewin and Aimee Greeblemonkey

During this time, I came up with the concept for "Laptop Yoga" which is part of the work I do now - helping professionals find balance in their online and offline worlds. Social media and yoga have a world in common. My life's work is to bridge the gap between technology and wellness practices. The humanity of technology is my focus.

To that end, I wrote "Yoga for the Social Web." It's part of the Unconventional Guide to the Social Web package.

That's me. What makes you tick?

Get in touch via email: gwen at gwenbell.com, on Twitter (@gwenbell), or here on the site. I look forward to hearing your story.